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Michael Jeffreys
Awakening is the direct realization that other than as a thought, “YOU” don’t exist. Upon clearly seeing this, peace, lightness and freedom results simply because the crushing “weight” of believing you are a separate-self is no longer present! -Michael Jeffreys
nature
When you see the world through your mind, you see a separate and divided up world.
There's "me" and there's everything else that's "not me." A scary place to live because you feel so alone, isolated, and vulnerable. There's this sense that we want to be whole again, and thus the search to fill the void takes over our lives.
What we eventually discover is that nothing "outside" us satisfies for long. The relationships, money, possessions, accomplishments, etc. that our mind had us convinced was going to make us happy simply doesn't. At this point, seemingly out of options, we may begin to look in the one place we haven't really explored: our own true nature.
Who or what is this "me" that I take myself to be?
Am I really these thoughts, feelings and sensations that I experience from moment to moment? Either you are or you aren't. But you won't know for sure until YOU get in there and take a good, hard, long look and get all your questions answered.
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Questions that can be useful in this inquiry into whether or not the "Separate Self" we believe ourselves to be actually exists include:
"What is stable and unchanging, since whatever I am is never not here!?"
"What is always present, but is not a thought, feeling, sensation, or perception since those things (forms) are constantly coming and going, i.e., changing?"
Have I ever noticed that what I AM does not age?
Have I ever noticed that what I AM has never made a sound?
Have I ever noticed that what I AM has never moved?
Could it be that there has been something here, quietly sitting in the background, that has ALWAYS been here, but was simply overlooked because you were so focused on the thoughts in your mind?
Like right NOW as you read this web page, you may have only consciously noticed these white words and didn't even notice the black background these words are appearing on until I just drew your attention to it.
The black background has always been here, it just wasn't noticed until now. And now that you are aware of it, we could say that you are "conscious" of it. Well, it's the same thing with your true nature. Once you see it, you become "conscious" of it whereas there was a time when you weren't.
This being the case, start paying more attention to/noticing the empty space around you. This:
See if you can sense/notice right NOW, this moment, that sounds arise out of stillness, express their essence for a duration, and then go back into the stillness. Take a moment now to completely stop thinking and just listen from silence. STOP and LISTEN:
A sound is born (enters our awareness), exists for a duration (we are aware of it for this long) and then it goes back into stillness (dies).
And you can notice the same thing about your thoughts. They appear, they stay for a short time, and then they disappear.
In fact, you can notice that this is true for EVERYTHING. That everything in existence, by its nature, is IMPERMANENT.
Awareness has no qualitiess
Alive awareness, YOU, has no wants, needs, desires, nor does it weigh anything. It simply IS.
And so new questions can begin to arise such as, "Does Awareness care if my car payment is on time, or if so and so likes me or not?" No, it doesn't. Only the illusory "I" cares about such things. But once it is clearly seen that is not who we are, then suddenly the reactive energy that once had us feeling like a pinball being knocked around by life suddenly loses its power over us.
You begin to experience life not as a separate "I" with all of its problems, but as the spacious aware presence that is your true nature. And when you do this, it's possible to notice that everything is simply an expression of "this" (and what "this" is we cannot say, because words take us away from it since they are concepts), and you ARE that.
Duality
We live in a world of duality, meaning twos or opposites (as in one could not exist without the other): hot cold, up down, good bad, etc. Non-duality means not two, as in only ONE.
One Source
For example, imagine if God (Spirit, Source, The Creator, -- choose whatever word you like) were an unlimited supply of green clay. Thus, She could make any object She wanted from the clay -- birds, trees, elephants, people, mountains, etc., but it would all be from the same "stuff." So, if the lion were to walk up to the ant and say, "I'm obviously better than you." The ant could rightfully say, "It's true that our forms are different, but we were formed from the exact same clay." Thus, the number of different appearances that form can take is unlimited. But ALL come from the ONE source.
Is the color green better than the color blue, or is it just different?
Is a banana better than an onion or is it just different?
Is a daisy really any better than a cactus, or is it just different?
Look around you without the mind's preconceived judgments, and you see that nothing is "right" or "wrong"... it just IS. And it is YOUR resistance to what IS that causes suffering. Why must you have a problem with anything? So what if someone says or believes something different than you? What does it matter? It's just a different perspective or "take" on the whole. It's their point-of-view (and it's helpful to remember that you would have the exact same point-of-view if you had their conditioning!).
Why reject anything when it's ALL you anyway? The ocean doesn't love one wave more than another. Each wave is simply a different expression of the same exact ocean. Therefore, even the belief that you feel separate or less than or depressed is YOU! Everything you think, touch, taste, smell, hear and see is you as that form. Nothing is not you so nothing needs to be rejected! But you must see and experience this directly for yourself. How? By turning your attention inward.
Most of the time our attention is directed outwards, and so that's where we tend to look for that "thing" that is going to give us the peace, fulfillment and wholeness we all seek.
But as you've no doubt noticed, everything outside of us is constantly changing and temporary, and thus ultimately fails to resolve the feeling of disconnection. The answer is to look inward. What is it in you right NOW, as you read these words, that is AWARE that you exist? The "I AM" prior to all labels. Investigate this. Stay with it. Don't stop looking. Eventually, you will come to see that which cannot be known by the mind, but contains the mind and everything else you experience. Silent, alive Awareness. Unconditioned stillness. A peace that has no opposite. A pure love that only loves. That is what you are.
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Who are you? This is the most auspicious question that can present itself. Don't walk away from it. - Mooji
The imagined sense of being a separate 'I' is the source of all problems. Because the 'I' as a thought is really very intangible, all types of other ideas get wrapped around it, in order to give it some semblance of solidity. All the self-definitions, identities and apparent conditioning hinge on the unexamined sense of 'I'. - John Wheeler
You are that which remains unaltered by all that comes and goes. - Mooji
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If the time spent thinking about objects not the self were spent inquiring into the Self, Self realization would be achieved in a very short time. - Ramana Maharshi
By knowing what you are not, you come to know yourself. - Sri Nisargadatta
Fear
arises through identification with form, whether it be a material
possession, a physical body, a social role, a self-image, a thought, or
an emotion. - Eckhart Tolle
Enlightenment is the direct, abiding realization that YOU don't exist. Anything else ain't it. - Adyashanti
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